Safe Place to Land
by 7Seabear
Summary: Two years after the events of Fractured Hearts, Rika and Hatori cross another hurdle together. [M]


The night was cold and sharp as a tack on her skin but Rika felt little of it when Hatori draped an arm over her shoulder. Shifting from whatever it was they had to _this_ had been a simple transition, without fanfare or alarm. They never quite spoke about it, still playing along to the idea that some kind of compromise was in effect. Rika living her life away from the Sohma confines, and Hatori supporting her in that.

_If_ that support just so happened to come from him taking her out for dinner and drinks, then so be it. The drunker she was, the greater her excuse to cuddle into him as they walked.

"How's your placement going?" Rika groaned, tucking herself tighter below his arm. Twisting her own into the gap between his coat and suit jacket.

"It's rotten. Haruhi had a patient vomit on her yesterday and then she threw up on _me_ because of the smell of her scrubs." A morning spent washing digested carrots and meat from her hair had been traumatic enough until she'd been sent to shadow in the paediatrics ward. "I feel like they're making this whole thing more difficult than it needs to be."

He laughed, squeezing her shoulder.

"You'll get the hang of it. Another couple months and you won't know yourself." She grumbled that she hoped so, using her body to angle him towards an alley way that she'd discovered was a good shortcut for her apartment.

"Only because I'll never sleep. I love it," She amended quickly, "But I can't wait for the day I can head home and just settle in a small clinic somewhere. Maybe one adjacent to a dojo." He was quiet in a way that told her he was thinking about something, fingertips trailing through the hair that spilled over her shoulder. It wasn't unusual for Hatori's mind to wander off while in conversation and given that even sober she found the way he curled her hair into his fingertips somewhat erotic, there was no help for her while a bottle of wine deep.

They shouldn't have drank so much, but then, they'd never worked within their limits when it came to one another. Before too long the pair had found their way to the door of her apartment and Rika knew the old game was afoot. He'd make his excuses to leave. She'd insist he stay. They'd share a coffee. Kiss with fervour. Rika liked it, even if it always seemed to end too soon. Too abruptly.

To her surprise, Hatori moved off script.

"Can I come in? I have something I'd like to talk to you about." Her stomach gave a sudden drop but rather than panic, she opened the door. Drew him into the warmth of her small apartment and moved through the usual processes. Set water to boil. Deposit their coats on the hooks inside the door. Stack shoes against the small rack. Hatori looked agitated through it all, as though he'd been building up to something all night. Rika had noted it but attributed it to his usual stoicism. Now, she was concerned there was something deeper there that she'd missed.

With her back to him, the woman rested her forehead against the back of her hand. Could she handle a rejection from him? If it even _was_ a rejection. Worse, why had he taken her for drinks first? _To soften the blow_?

His hands on her shoulders sent her thoughts skittering and the woman flinched against the chill of his skin.

"Don't panic," He told her, "It's not a bad thing. Just a thing I want you to think about." A chaste kiss was placed at her temple, Rika allowing her eyes to close and savour in these small intimacies while he granted them. The shattering of bond had taken away his reticence when it came to sharing affection but he still clung fast to the idea that they ought to wait until she was finished university before pursuing something _more_.

"What is it?" Her expression was unguarded as she turned to him, Rika long ago having put aside any walls where Hari was concerned. She had asked him not to hide anything from her and so she had to reciprocate it in kind. That didn't make any hurdle easier to jump. In some ways, it occasionally made them _harder_. Honesty, particularly within the Sohma's, could be an especially difficult line to walk.

"Akito has granted me permission to expand the clinic." Rika nearly dropped the mug she was passing to him but his reflexes were quicker. He grabbed a hold of her wrist and took the ceramic, placing it onto the little island that separated kitchen from the main living space. "To offer treatment to people outside the main family."

"Hari, that's -," _Amazing_. _Unbelievable. Shocking_. She couldn't get any of the words out, instead settling for the warm glow in her chest and a beamed exhale. "I'm _so proud of you_." He had never been good at accepting compliments and now was no different, the man brushing aside her praise with a wiggle of his wrist and a wry smile.

"It's going to take a while. I'll need a new building, somewhere that can accommodate patients. Staff." There was a hitch in his words. "A _nurse_." Her eyes widened, comprehension dawning. That was why he was so nervous. He didn't want her to be offended when he hired someone else.

Rika laughed, cheeks turning pink. Hatori looked taken aback by the sudden shift in her mood.

"Hari, it's okay. Really. I'm happy for you to get a clinic of your own and you have to hire the right people. Maybe I can intern with you guys for a bit once I'm qualified but regardless, I'm sure whomever you hire will do a great job and honestly it's so good that this is finally happening for you. You're going to run the best clinic. You deserve it." She meant every word she spoke, rambling on in her pride until the man laughed along with her. Pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose.

"For a remarkably intelligent woman, you're very slow on the uptake." She blinked. "When you're done here, I want to hire _you_. Or well, that sounds like one of Shigure's stupid fantasy scenarios. I don't want to hire you. I want you to come work _with_ me. Run it by my side. As a partner." He had tucked a hand below her chin as he spoke, palm spreading flat against her skin until it swept down to her shoulder. Rika searched his face for any sign of sarcasm or joking. Found none. He was serious. Oh hell, he was _very_ serious. Her breathing felt choked. Emotional.

"Hari, I'd _love to_." Her desire to settle into a small clinic had stemmed from having his one to turn to over the years. Somewhere that was intimate and close. That could feel like home. Having that place turn out to be somewhere run by the man she loved would only sweeten the deal. "Are you sure though. I mean, the last time you worked with -,"

She didn't have to say Kana, the way his eyes darkened answer enough that he understood her insinuation.

"Rika -," The woman met his eyes and found fear there, "You and I - _this_ \- I'm here for the long haul. To support you no matter our own personal relationship. I promised you that. If you would rather we do it without the additional complications I would understand."

How like him, she mused, to be so concerned with her comfort despite how painful the idea was to imagine them as separate entities. For all that he allowed himself these weaknesses, the casual touches. _Dates_. Pretence that should she walk away, it wouldn't crush him in the process - he still held onto the fear that it was an eventual possibility. Even knowing that after the curse had broken, she still loved him. That he loved her.

"You're such an idiot." It was spoken with immense affection, Rika arching onto the balls of her feet to press her mouth to his. He returned the kiss slowly at first. Then deeply. These were the highlights of his visits. The moment they stopped their dalliance with propriety. He tasted of red wine and lemongrass. Smelled like the ocean. Her hands curled around his waist, pulling him as close as she could until they were flush against each other. His arm reached around her and even with his lips on her neck - remembered to turn off the heat on the cooker.

Laughing, she let him lead her backwards and into the main room. Tug her sweater above her head so he could get access to her bare shoulders. Each press of his lips was a new nerve to be set alight, Hatori slipping the straps of her dress off of her shoulders so that he had greater access to her skin.

Rika's hands skittered over his shirt. Toying with buttons but never opening them.

For all the dropped pretence, there was still a line. A place he managed to never quite cross despite the feverish way he attacked her mouth. It drove her part way to insanity each time he left her home. Lingering in the doorway for final kisses as he fixed his scarf to his neck. Toed his feet into his shoes. No amount of pouting had changed it yet, so instead the woman took to finding what pressure points she could.

Her teeth teasing the lobe of his ear made his knees buckle. Nails drawing across his lower back between the gap in shirt and slacks inspired moans. She'd become a cartographer of his sensuality, edging her way to new discoveries each time he allowed her delve a little bit more into what made him tick.

Tonight, he was more hesitant than ever to pull away but he did it all the same. Signalled the end with a final kiss to the bridge between her brows.

She leaned in against him, feeling the way his heart raced and his body responded to her. Breathing hard. He picked up the now cooled mug of coffee and Rika reached towards him to snag a mouthful.

"So it's a yes?" She could have laughed. He still sounded surprised.

"Of course. Hari, I love you. I know it sounds corny but it will be the _greatest_ honour to work by your side and I will do my utmost to ensure I am deserving of it."

She tilted her head into the touch of his palm on her cheek, smiling.

"You're already deserving of everything." He dropped his mouth to hers. Captured her in a slow kiss. Exhaled heavily against her lips. "I love you too. But I have to go or -"

"_Or_?" She chose to be purposely obtuse, mouth dancing with amusement. After an offer like that, how was she meant to let him leave? An errant thought rose. If he was planning a future, _their_ future, then what other parts of his little compromise was he willing to put aside? It wasn't as though he was _unwilling_. She'd seen the way he looked at her when his guard was down. It was much the same way she believed she looked at him.

"We're _not_ going to have sex. I have _some_ self control." Rika hooked a finger through one of the loops of his waistband, expression coy with her silent chellenge. "Provided you stop teasing."

"On the contrary, I don't think I will."

He moaned his displeasure, snatching her hands and pinning them to her sides. Walking her back to the wall opposite.

"_Stay_." Hatori ordered. Rika snorted. He pulled back, a hand reaching blindly for his coat.

"Hari," Her hand returned to his belt loops, one finger snagging him and keeping him in place, "We're going to have sex."

"No," He shook his head, "We're not."

"Why is that?"

"Because the first time we do, I'm going to choose somewhere better than an apartment where you can hear every conversation taking place on either side of it." She sniggered, conceding that he had a point. He pulled her back to him, a hand spread into her hair so he could kiss her and hold her there. Her grip remained solid, holding him from leaving.

"And the _real_ reason?" It was a suspicion based on very little beyond the fact that she knew Hatori almost as well as she knew herself. While the first answer was logical, there was reticence each time he left. Tonight it seemed stronger than ever; recognising it was the only reason she chose to push him.

Hatori sighed. Tilted his head away.

"When we first made our agreement," Oh balls, _this again, "_I may have confided in Shigure as to the terms."

Rika exploded with laughter, hand covering her mouth.

"And -,"

"And he told me we wouldn't last six months without fucking."

The bluntness of the accusation had clearly gotten under his skin but try as she might, Rika couldn't stop laughing. She would blame the wine for that.

"Hari. _Hari." _It was spoken in a melodic hum, Rika dropping her hands over his hips so that she could look at him properly. "You're a damn fool you know."

"I know." He answered miserably.

"And you're telling me that you've been martyring us _both_ over some idiotic thing that came out of Shigure's mouth?"

"It would seem that is the case." Rika, humour dancing around her mouth, leaned past him to turn the lock in her front door once again. Pressed herself close to him in the process.

"I believe, you've forgotten some very pertinent facts," She held up a hand with three fingers outstretched before his eyes, "One, we're _definitely_ going to have sex eventually, shitty walls or not. Two, it's been nearly _two _years, one broken curse and a whole lot else since we made that agreement so technically you've already beaten him and _three, _in case two doesn't sway you - unlike _some_ foolish beautiful men that I know - _I _can keep a secret from Shigure Sohma."

His head lifted. Turned to consider her.

"That is true." His hand had come off the door, body angling back to hers. "And I just thought of another one."

"_Oh_?"

"Now that I've said that ridiculous thing out loud I find that I really -," Off came his jacket once more, "Really," His suit jacket, "_Really,_" He started to loosen the top button of his shirt below his tie and Rika slapped his hand away to do it herself, "Don't give a shit what Shigure thinks."

The tide had turned all at once and Rika felt her skin heat with anticipation. There was no hesitation now in the way he glided his hands over her hips. Her thighs. Sweeping back up to her lower back so that he could tug on the zipper of her dress and draw it downward.

"Hari-" She breathed it, deftly undoing the buttons of his shirt and dropping the fabric over his shoulders so that his chest was bared to her. Her smile was self satisfied, Rika leaning onto her toes to whisper against his lips. "We're going to have sex."

Saying it again made heat pool in her stomach and the man used her hair to tug her head back before he snared her mouth beneath his own. Uttered a moan of agreement. Or pleasure. She'd found the buckle of his belt. Undid it.

Her dress slipped to the floor in one crash of fabric, quickly joined by his slacks. She shivered when he drew a finger across the waistband of her pants (with a merciful sigh that she'd bothered to put on the nice matching set that evening).

"I love you." He buried the words into the slope of her neck. The notch of her collar bone. The space between her breasts. As he did so, his hands slipped below the waistband. Dipped into the warm wetness between her legs. She was already aroused and it only grew as she felt his erection straining against his boxer briefs.

She said it back between gasps and sighs, curling it over the expanse of his shoulders and within the space between them. She said it like a prayer over his cheekbones and eyelids, matching the motion with her hands as she slid his underwear off and took him into her palm.

She might have been inexperienced in love, but one didn't need love to learn how to appreciate someone else's body. It did, however, help to have the extra incentive of wanting to see what his pleasure did to his face. His eyes. His heart. His fingertips trailed back and forth with tortuous delay. Sliding into her. Out. Over the bundle of nerves at her center. Rika could hardly bear it when he stepped back. Appraised her.

She didn't have to wait long for him to unhook her bra. Push her pants over her hips and down her legs. He knelt as he performed the latter action and kissed along the curve of her hip. Nipped at nerve laden skin with his teeth.

When he finally buried his head between her thighs, she was already lost. Breath hitching, Hatori only stopped once she was shuddering beneath his touch. Trailed his tongue over the bundle of nerves an extra time for good measure.

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her with fevered intensity, drawing her legs around his waist until she was supported by his weight alone in the passage to the bed.

Bowed over the coverings, Rika had the distinct pleasure of Hatori kissing his way from knee to mouth, no patch of skin left unloved under his path. It was desperately slow. Sensual. _Right_.

"I love you," He uttered it again as he positioned himself in front of her, using his hand to guide the movement, "Rika, I _love you_."

Her answer was caught in the feel of him sliding into her, one long reach until he had buried himself to the hilt. Rika moaned. Arched her back.

Shigure might have called it fucking in his accusation, but Rika knew he was wrong. Hatori didn't fuck her. There would be time for that another day. That night, he made love to her. Each thrust carefully placed so they could both feel the joy of it. A hand hooked around the slope of her neck so he could intersperse the thrusts with desperate, heated kisses.

Changing the pace, the angle. Shifting so she was over him, silhouette outlined against the light in her room. Trying his tongue once again. Gasping when she began an exploration of her own. Each of it was designed to make her writhe and moan around him. Her climax crept up suddenly, Rika's body shuddering below his as she spasmed. Tightened. Came once. _Twice_. Speaking felt too much and so she hummed and gasped her affections into his ear. Suckled on his earlobe.

That was his undoing. A final series of thrusts had him collapsing over her, head tucked into the crook of her neck.

Rika smiled, letting him adjust them until they were side by side under the covers and his hand hooked possessively over her thigh. Her own curled over his waist.

"Hey Hari," He grunted his response, too overwhelmed to do much else even as she turned her self satisfied grin towards him. "I was right."

Laughing, Hatori pulled her close. Silenced her smugness with a slow kiss as he reached above her to flick off the switch overhead.

Darkness fell over them, Rika letting sleepiness finally take over as she drifted off in his embrace. Not enough to miss the promise in his words first.

"In the morning, I'll prove you right again."

"Just do it quietly!"

Rika's eyes snapped open, meeting Hatori's. The words had come from the apartment next door and both lay frozen before erupting with laughter until tears streamed down their faces. There may have been _some_ sense in his words after all but Rika didn't give a damn. All she knew was the feel of his body tucked against hers, skin to skin, and the way he claimed her lips a final time.

Without much fanfare, sleep swept her under.


End file.
